In this episode, Patrick discusses who’s really in charge at Roof Life, and when it’s to consider roof repair vs replacement of your shake roof, among other things.

Podcast Transcription- RoofLifeB015-126:

Shayla: Thank you for joining us today for the Roof Life of Oregon Podcast. I’m talking to Patrick Morin who is the man in charge at Roof Life. And, Patrick, I want to know is there such a thing as too many repairs on a shake roof?

Patrick: Well, is there such a thing as a man in charge? I thought my wife’s in charge.

Shayla: Well, at least at Roof Life.

Patrick: Yea, and even then, it’s questionable. But I am called the chief bottle washer and we do try to keep everything going in the right direction. But when is a roof past the point of repair? And when should you just say, alright?

So let’s have that discussion. So there’s three different roofs that we maintain in Portland. There’s shake roofs, wood shake roofs, there’s asphalt shingles, and there’s tile. So on a shake roof, when we walk the roof, we’re looking for things that are worn out. So here you have an example of an erosion hole. There’d be a shake here and shake here. And the only thing keeping water out of your house is the felt paper. So when we’re walking the roof, we’re looking for shakes that from the ground to a layperson, they look like they’re all there, but when you get up on the roof and look down, you’re seeing black felt paper, which is only a two to five year keep, and then it leaks. So those shakes have to come out and we count them as we walk around.

So if you look at a ten by ten area on your roof, that’s what a square is. One square of roofing is a ten foot by ten foot area. There’s 200 shakes that make up that ten by ten area. So if you go over a ten percent repair, so if there’s more than 20 shakes in that ten by ten area, that roof needs to be handled maybe with just putting shims under it, and them plan to replace in a couple years. But if you have 20, 30 percent repair, so that would be 40-60 of the 200, that is a hard clue that’s it’s time to replace the roof. You have pulled all those shakes out, you’ve worked them out, they have two fasteners in each one, then you’ve slid a new shake in place, you’ve put two fasteners, so you’ve put lots of holes in that underlayment, and you’re disturbing the whole thing in such a big amount, that’s it’s more than likely going to leak and not going to last. Because it is the shakes that look good and protect the paper that keeps the water out of your home.

So anytime that we tell you, when you call us out for your well care inspection, if we say, you know what, your roof’s at the age or the point in its life where it’s got too much repair needed to make it viable, extendable roof, we suggest you embrace it and plan to replace it as soon as possible, or we might suggest shimming it and then plan to replace in two to three years.

If you call Roof Life of Oregon, that’s what you’re going to get in your well care check-up. We’re going to find those issues, going to give you the whole picture, so that you decide, do I take care of this roof or do I replace this roof?

Shayla: So if you are wondering where you roof is at right now, it’s a good idea to pick up the phone or go online to rooflife-oregon.com and schedule that well care check-up. Thanks, Patrick.